Chapter Text
Sara can tell Nyssa is no longer surprised by her surprise appearances at the class Nyssa teaches for the League. When she enters the dojo, Nyssa shakes her head with a smirk. Sara forces the butterflies in her stomach to calm down so she can walk up to Nyssa without her hands shaking.
“Hey,” she says, like a loser.
“Lance,” Nyssa greets, carefully checking to see if anyone is paying attention before elaborately looking her up and down. Sara acts like she didn’t pick this outfit specifically to get Nyssa’s attention. The League has a pretty strict dress code, but voluntary practice sessions are much more relaxed, so it’s acceptable for Sara to show up in just leggings and a sports bra.
The tension between them is palpable. It’s been a few weeks since they last saw each other; Nyssa had a tournament overseas, and then Sara had finals week. She’s excited to use the class as an excuse to punch the frustration out of her system; studying has been fucking impossible ever since Laurel left.
She’s also excited for Nyssa to fuck the frustration out of her. They’ve been… seeing each other intermittently, even since before Sara and Kendra officially broke up — not that anything has changed between them, really. Kendra hasn’t met Nyssa yet, but she’s been pestering Sara about it.
“Just invite her over for Christmas, babe,” Kendra says, looking up from her textbook on the bed. Sara frowns.
“You’re doing Christmas with us?”
“Might as well,” Kendra shrugs. “My folks aren’t doing anything, and I’d love to see Laurel again.”
“If she even comes home,” Sara grumbles. “She better not celebrate with her stupid boyfriend’s filthy rich family.”
“Tell her you’re bringing your new girlfriend. She’ll show up.”
“Nyssa isn’t my girlfriend,” Sara points out.
“Okay,” Kendra winks, before getting back to her textbook.
The conversation has been lingering in her head ever since. She hasn’t made up her mind yet; she’s not even sure if Nyssa wants more than the stolen moments they share in her office after practices.
Nyssa has them run a couple of drills and ends the practice with a bit of sparring and grappling. She casually motions for Sara to partner up with her, and Sara smirks. Nyssa is excellent at finding convenient excuses to put her hands all over Sara during practices, and this is no different. The rest of the class is nowhere near either of them in skill, so it makes sense to pair them up, but Sara knows there’s more to it than that. Nyssa is a tease.
Sure enough, Sara finds herself on her back with Nyssa on top of her within the first minute of sparring. They stare into each other’s eyes for a moment, and then Nyssa pulls her back to her feet.
“So I was thinking,” Sara says, ducking Nyssa’s attempt to put her in a headlock.
“Don’t think,” Nyssa replies, and immediately tackles Sara to the ground. She recognizes the warning for what it is; not here, not now.
“Fine,” she says, rolling her eyes and escaping the hold, trying to flip Nyssa with a snap of her hips. It doesn’t work, of course. She’s face down on the mat with her hands behind her back in two seconds. It takes her a second to recover from the feeling of having Nyssa pressed up against her, but she returns with fervor, going for a full body tackle this time.
Nyssa is surprised by the admittedly unrefined attack, and Sara knocks the wind out of her. They land in a heap on the mat and start laughing.
“What was that,” Nyssa chuckles.
“Revenge,” Sara simply says. “You were getting cocky.” Nyssa clearly catches the double entendre but keeps her face straight.
When the class ends, Sara is out of breath and out of patience, and while Nyssa’s face isn’t giving anything away as usual, Sara can tell she’s in a similar state. To her chagrin, it takes a while for the other students to filter out. When the room is finally empty, Nyssa’s posture changes the tiniest bit, but Sara knows what it means and launches herself at Nyssa, who easily catches her. They kiss frantically, and Sara locks her legs around Nyssa’s hips when she feels her hands squeeze her ass.
She’s carried into the office that doesn’t officially belong to Nyssa, but that no one else dares to use when she’s around. Nyssa sets her down on the desk and Sara tangles her hands in dark braided hair, pulling lightly to provoke Nyssa.
“Patience, lover,” Nyssa whispers in her ear, causing a full body shiver. Sara isn’t feeling patient at all, so she starts peeling her leggings off herself.
“Hold on,” Nyssa says, stopping her hands. “What did you want to tell me earlier?”
Sara tries remembering, she really does. But Nyssa’s hands are cool on her burning muscles and it feels too good to pay attention to anything else. “Doesn’t matter,” she says, going back to kissing Nyssa. “Don’t remember. It’ll come back to me.”
They kiss for a while, until it suddenly pops back into Sara’s head.
“Oh,” Sara snaps her fingers at Nyssa. “I- uh…” she trails off, realizing that what she’s about to ask might be completely ridiculous. “Do you celebrate Christmas?”
Nyssa gives her a puzzled look. “No, lover. We’re not Christians.”
“Well, neither am I. But, eh, I wanted to ask if maybe you’d wanna come over to mine for Christmas?”
Nyssa seems even more confused. “Can I ask why?”
“Well, we’ve been… doing this for a bit, and I’d like to maybe see you outside of this building sometimes? Plus, Kendra’s coming too and she really wants to meet you. And I think my dad does too. Not that I’ve told him about what we… do, but I talk about you a lot and he’s been asking if we’re dating. I don’t know what to tell him. But I think I want you to be there? You can sleep over if you want, too. Ken is staying over as well.”
Nyssa nods to herself. “Well, okay. I would love to spend more time with you. And I would also love to meet the notorious best friend with benefits slash ex.” Sara grins in reply. “Do I need to bring anything?”
“Uhh, a toothbrush? You can borrow a shirt to sleep in. And my dad already thinks you’re cool as fuck from everything I’ve told him, but if you really want him to adore you… bring booze. If that’s cool? Do you drink?” Sara realizes her mistake right away. “I mean, I assume you don’t since you’re not 21 yet?”
Nyssa grins conspiratorially. “I’m not, and I don’t drink during competition season. But it’s the holiday break, and he doesn’t have to know. Can’t let Kendra seem like the better of your partners, can I now?” She smiles at Sara, the soft smile she never allows to show in public but which Sara has been seeing more and more often in their private moments.
“Does that mean…?” Sara grins back at her.
“I adore you, Sara,” Nyssa says. “But we have to be… careful, and this can never really go beyond what it is now. My father cannot know.” Sara nods quickly, understanding exactly what Nyssa means. They can see each other sometimes and hook up whenever possible, but dating officially is out of the question. Sara can work with that, though. It’s not like she’s big on conventional relationships anyway. Also, she’s terrified of Nyssa’s dad, and she knows being stealthy about this is in her own best interest, even if it sucks a little bit.
“Yeah, no, I agree. Let’s not ever let him figure out I’m getting railed by his prodigal daughter in her office on the regular.”
“Must you be so crass, beloved?” Nyssa fondly rolls her eyes.
It’s a new nickname, an upgrade from her previous one, and Sara feels her heart swell in her chest. It’s not like Nyssa to say those three words this quickly, and she technically didn’t, but she’s nothing if not passionate.
“Oh, I know you like it when I talk dirty, babe. You can’t hide that from me,” Sara says cockily, and Nyssa raises an eyebrow at her.
“Maybe I should put your smart mouth to better use,” Nyssa threatens, and Sara is already down on her knees.
*
Just like every other year, Sara doesn’t want to celebrate her birthday until the end of winter break, when most people are back home. Nyssa texts her on the day itself, though.
nyss <3 // Happy birthday, beloved. I’ll see you at Christmas.
Kendra takes her out to the movies, and they nearly hook up in the theater when Sara gets bored and starts toying with Kendra’s skirt.
“Hands to yourself, Lancelot,” Kendra chastises her with a sharp intake of breath when her hand slips a bit too far upwards. “Is Nyssa cool with this?”
“Yes,” Sara whispers so she doesn’t disturb the other people in the theater. “She knows about us and she’s fine with it. We’re not exclusive.”
The screen illuminates Kendra’s face, sporting a devious grin. “In that case…” she pulls on Sara’s hand until it’s back underneath her skirt, and Sara grins in the dark.
*
Laurel arrives two days before Christmas with a birthday present for Sara and good news; she broke up with her boring boyfriend. Their dad seems just as thrilled as Sara feels. They spend the next two days catching up. Sara tells Laurel about her official breakup with Kendra, but that they’re still best friends with benefits, which confuses her, and about Nyssa, which confuses her even more.
“Leave it to you to invite two partners to make me feel extra single,” Laurel teases lightly.
“Shouldn’t have helped me figure out what being poly was, sis. That’s on you!” Laurel laughs good-naturedly at Sara’s quick rebuttal.
“So what’s she like? Nyssa?”
Sara tries to find the words. “ So hot, Laurel.” Laurel rolls her eyes. “But also so good at fighting. She kicks my ass every fucking time. Doesn’t take my shit. She’s a badass. Smart too, she’s doing a double degree next year, on a full scholarship. And she’s cool as fuck, but she’s so… passionate. There’s fire in her eyes whenever she fights.”
“You are so gay,” Laurel giggles. “None of these descriptions are helpful in the slightest. I’ll just wait until she gets here and make my own judgment.”
“You’ll love her,” Sara affirms. “You adore Kendra, too.”
It’s true. Laurel and Kendra get along like a house on fire, and there’s no doubt in Sara’s mind that Nyssa will fit right in with them. She’s already preparing for the inevitable collective roasting she’ll be subjected to at dinner.
She was right to; it starts the second Kendra walks in the door at 4pm and sees Sara’s Christmas sweater. “Oh, Lancelot. Did you run out of clean clothes again?” Kendra herself is wearing a tight red dress with glitters all over; she looks stunning.
Sara rolls her eyes but lets her in, while Laurel laughs and walks up to hug Kendra.
“My favorite Lance!” Kendra squeezes Laurel until she taps out.
“Rude,” Sara just says. “I’m gonna go change.”
“Thank god,” Laurel sighs. “I was getting sick of getting stared at by those reindeer on your tits.”
Sara bounces back down the stairs in her shimmery black dress just when the doorbell rings for the second time, signaling Nyssa’s arrival.
“How do I look?” She asks Kendra, nervously smoothing down her dress.
“Sexy as fuck, babe. Go fetch your girl.” She waves at the door.
Nyssa is wearing black trousers and a loose white blouse, and she’s holding a bottle of whiskey with a bow on it. She lets her eyes wander over Sara’s dress in appreciation, while Sara gawks at Nyssa’s outfit.
“Hi,” Nyssa eventually says to break Sara out of her trance.
“Hi, sorry, come in,” Sara steps aside and calls her dad, who walks out of the kitchen.
“Everyone, this is Nyssa. Nyssa, this is my dad, my sister Laurel and Kendra.” Sara tries to barrel past the awkward introductions and drag Nyssa into the kitchen, but she lets go of Sara’s hand to shake her dad’s.
“Nice to meet you, Captain Lance, sir.” She presents him the bottle of whiskey. “My father assures me this is a good year.” She sneaks a wink at Sara.
Quentin whistles, clearly impressed. “You bring me a bottle like this, feel free to call me Quentin. Don’t mind if I try it right away.” He goes back into the kitchen, presumably to fetch a glass, and Sara turns her attention back to Laurel and Kendra.
Laurel is grinning from ear to ear, and Kendra is flat out staring.
“I like her,” Laurel says. “She’s good.”
“And really fucking hot,” Kendra adds. “You weren’t wrong.”
Sara feels a blush creep up to her cheeks when Nyssa looks at her in amusement, and she stares at the ceiling in frustration.
“Been talking about me, have you?” Nyssa pokes her gently in the side.
“Shut up,” Sara grumbles. “You two,” she points at Kendra and Laurel, “stop embarrassing me.”
Laurel holds up her hands, but Kendra just grins. “I don’t have to do anything to embarrass you, babe.”
Something starts beeping in the kitchen, and Laurel quickly goes to deal with whatever needs to be taken out of the oven. Sara has been banned from the kitchen with several threats of violence by her sister, so she doesn’t move, and neither do Kendra and Nyssa.
Kendra is still staring at Nyssa with what Sara can only describe as a scheming look, half intrigue and half deviousness. It’s pretty obvious that Nyssa has noticed it as well, but she doesn’t seem put off by it in the slightest. If anything, she seems kind of amused, and she gives Kendra a quick wink. Kendra’s mouth curls into a smirk, and Sara feels like she should probably not let whatever this is go on for too long while they’re standing in the hallway, so she scrapes her throat.
“So.” She doesn’t actually have anything to say because, well, what the hell is she supposed to say? Thankfully, Laurel calls them into the kitchen to help put the food on the table.
Her dad has never been a star in the kitchen, so Laurel offered to help him find recipes and follow them, and now they have way too much food for the five of them because she insisted on making a whole traditional Christmas dinner.
“Wait,” Sara pulls Nyssa back right before they enter the kitchen. “If I eat bacon, can I kiss you later?” She murmurs softly, so nobody overhears.
Nyssa smiles softly. “Of course, beloved. But thank you for asking.”
Sara forgets to let go of Nyssa’s hand before they walk in, and she sees Laurel give them a soft smile when she notices. She also sees Kendra bite her tongue to refrain from making a comment, which she greatly appreciates.
When they’re all sat down, Quentin offers Nyssa the knife to start carving the turkey. “I’ve never done this before,” Nyssa chuckles as she takes it from him, so Sara also gets up to help her. Unnecessarily, as it turns out; it seems like Nyssa’s knife wielding skills are applicable to food as well. She extends the wishbone to Sara, who snaps off the longer piece.
“Make a wish!” Laurel says excitedly, and Sara thinks about what her wish will be while Nyssa distributes the turkey meat. She looks around for inspiration and realizes almost all the people she loves are here with her and there’s really not anything she still wants from them. Eventually, she just wishes that they’ll all stay in her life for as long as possible and that they get along well enough tonight to repeat this dinner next year. When she opens her eyes, Laurel has filled up her plate with mashed potatoes, gravy and some veggies, and she enthusiastically digs in.
The food is fantastic as always; Laurel is a talented cook, just like their mom. Dinah is currently abroad on some kind of archaeological expedition in Greece, which is why she couldn’t join them tonight. Sara doesn’t mind all that much. There’s always a strange tension between her parents whenever they do something together. She doesn’t blame them; it must be weird to celebrate the holidays with your ex.
Then she looks at Kendra across the table and chuckles to herself, because that’s exactly what she’s doing right now.
“Something funny?” Kendra asks.
“Nah, just realized something, but it’s not important,” Sara waves it away with her fork.
“So, Nyssa,” Quentin says. “Tell me about yourself. What do you like to do?”
Fight and fuck , Sara thinks to herself. Luckily, Nyssa has more common sense than her and gives a neatly diplomatic answer.
“Training, mostly, sir. I spend most of my free time at my father’s dojo.”
“Are you better than Sara?” Kendra asks with interest.
“Yes,” Sara answers before Nyssa can. “Much better, too. She kicks my ass all the time.”
“No wonder you like her so much,” Laurel teases, making Sara blush.
They make casual conversation while they eat. Nyssa tells Quentin that she’s planning to get some kind of double Business degree at college and that she’ll be applying to AFU, which is one of the schools the League offers a scholarship for. It prompts Quentin to kind of look at Sara with raised eyebrows, but she averts eye contact and pretends she doesn’t notice in order to keep the peace. She really doesn’t feel like having a screaming match over her future at Christmas dinner.
Thankfully, Kendra announces she’s also applying to AFU because they have a great cheerleading scholarship as well. Sara already knows Kendra wants to be a psychologist, and she’ll be scarily good at it. Nobody she’s ever met knows people the way Kendra does.
Sara suddenly realizes that if both Kendra and Nyssa are going to the same school, she might as well apply there too. She’s not exactly excited about pursuing further education because she objectively sucks at school, but she also knows it’s the smart thing to do, and with both of them around her it’s much more likely she’ll actually be able to do it. She silently vows to herself to ask Laurel to help her check out some of the majors they offer; there might be something she’ll actually like.
After they finish their desserts, they all exchange gifts. Sara gets a silver necklace with a little knife pendant from Nyssa, who almost blushes when Sara opens it and asks Nyssa to put it on right away.
Kendra’s gift is a set of small solid silver hoop earrings and piercings, which have been carefully selected to match in design. Sara insists on changing them in the middle of the living room and nearly loses one immediately when everyone except Nyssa winces as she methodically takes out all her piercings, as if she doesn’t do that for every practice.
Her dad got her the new set of boxing gloves she’s been begging him for since October, and Laurel gives her a coupon for a bouldering gym nearby, which she said she’d love to check out sometime.
Sara got Nyssa a small folding knife with a hummingbird design, which she excitedly flicks open and closed a few times, hypnotizing Sara until Quentin coughs. She gives Kendra a gift card for a tattoo and piercing shop, and her eyes light up mischievously when she sees it.
Laurel gets a subscription to the League’s self defense course for women, because she wants to be a lawyer of some kind and Sara flat out refuses to let her sister be around criminals without proper training; she sees her dad nod approvingly when Laurel shows him the card. For her dad, Sara and Laurel got some pictures taken together and put one of them in a nice frame he can put on his desk at work, and Laurel bought a nice bottle of scotch to go with it.
After everyone unwraps everything and they hang out on the couch for a bit, Sara announces she’s going to set up her room so Nyssa and Kendra can sleep over. Quentin frowns at first and goes to open his mouth, but Sara sees Laurel subtly kick him to keep him quiet. She has an inkling that Laurel will be giving her dad a stern talking to about getting involved in Sara’s —admittedly complicated— love life later this evening, probably over a glass of that scotch she bought him.
The three of them run up the two sets of stairs to Sara’s bedroom, which she obsessively and meticulously cleaned earlier this week because she knew Nyssa was coming over. Her bedroom is in the attic, mostly for cool reasons like the ability to climb onto the flat part of the roof from her window and the space to train. She even has a boxing bag hung from the ceiling, and it only took a single summer of asking Quentin to spar with her. But the fact that it’s decently isolated because otherwise it would turn into an oven and the whole house would wake up from Sara’s midnight workouts is definitely an additional perk.
Sara was fully intending on taking the air mattress and having Kendra and Nyssa sleep in her bed, but she suddenly realizes that might be a bit awkward, considering they don’t know each other that well. “Uh,” she says when she realizes her mistake.
“I’ll take the mattress, you two sleep in the bed,” Nyssa says, and Kendra immediately protests.
“ I’ll take the mattress, Sara.”
“Kendra, I’ve slept on much worse than inflated air. Please, I can sleep on the mattress,” Nyssa says politely.
“Uh, there is no way either of you are sleeping on an air mattress as guests in my house,” Sara points out. “You can share the bed if you’re comfortable with that, I’ll take the mattress.” She very much intends this to be the end of it, but she should have known neither Kendra nor Nyssa would agree with her.
“Sara, that’s ridiculous, it’s your bed,” Kendra protests at the same time as Nyssa.
“Habibi, be rational.” Nyssa’s Arabic nickname for her serves to distract Kendra from the mattress conundrum entirely.
“Habibi?! Have you gotten engaged? What is going on?”
“No, Ken, calm down, Nyssa is just…” Sara’s blushing, because she doesn’t have an explanation.
“Extremely gay?” Kendra offers, and Nyssa snorts.
“I’d go with poetic,” she replies.
“Well, clearly you two should take the bed,” Kendra smirks. “And I should go sleep downstairs on the couch so you can be poetic together.” She wiggles her eyebrows to emphasize her double entendre. Sara rolls her eyes.
“I’m taking the fucking mattress,” Sara says. “End of discussion.” Kendra bursts out laughing and Nyssa chuckles in amusement. “What’s funny.”
“You, thinking you have authority,” Kendra giggles. Sara throws her hands in the air.
“Well then why don’t we just all sleep in the fucking bed, god. It’s big enough for the three of us anyway. I’ll take the middle.” The room goes silent.
“Okay,” Nyssa says with a shrug. “Fine by me.”
Kendra shrugs too. “Alright. Saves us the fucking hassle of inflating this thing.” She kicks the folded up air mattress next to Sara’s bed.
Sara still thinks she might inflate it just in case she gets overheated at night, but for now, she’s just happy they’ve found a solution. She grabs three old t-shirts out of a drawer and hands them out to Kendra and Nyssa.
“Camp Ogawa 2006?” Nyssa reads the logo on the shirt.
“San Diego marathon finisher 2015,” Kendra reads off hers. “Did you run a fucking marathon without telling me?” She asks Sara.
“Camp Ogawa is a summer camp I went to a few times. And Laurel ran the marathon, not me. I hate running.”
Sara is debating whether she should turn around to change and spins in place twice, deciding if it’s weirder if she doesn’t than if she does. She looks at Kendra and Nyssa, who are staring at her with nearly identical expressions of amused disbelief. Both of them have a single eyebrow raised — Sara notices that it’s the same eyebrow, that’s funny — and a fond smile on their face. Her heart stutters just a little bit seeing both of them look at her like that.
“What,” she says defensively, feeling heat creep up her neck and cheeks.
“You’re cute,” Nyssa says.
“Hmm. She is,” Kendra agrees, then turns her back to Nyssa. “Unzip me?” Sara chokes on air. Hold on a second .
Nyssa unzips Kendra’s dress and she slips it off her shoulders. It slides onto the floor. She’s not wearing a bra. Sara is having trouble breathing but she manages to register Nyssa is grinning at her.
Several things go through Sara’s head, and she can process exactly none of them. She makes an attempt at using her voice, but nothing comes out. Then, Kendra pulls the shirt over her head, and Sara comes back to her senses.
Nyssa doesn’t ask Kendra for help unbuttoning her blouse, and Sara doesn’t know whether she’s grateful or sad about it. But she figures if both of them are comfortable changing in the same room and sleeping in the same bed, there’s no reason for her to be shy about it, so she changes as well.
When Nyssa takes off her slacks, there’s suddenly a lot of bare legs. Sara hears Kendra whistle and snaps her head towards her, only to find her looking at Nyssa and herself in disbelief.
“Dudes, what the fuck happened to your legs?” She asks incredulously.
It’s not an unfair question; Nyssa’s legs are riddled with bruises just like Sara’s.
“Sparring,” both of them say at the same time.
“That sport you do is downright abusive,” Kendra points out. “Let’s watch a movie?” She jumps on Sara’s bed.
Kendra and Sara bicker over which movie to watch for fifteen minutes. Kendra is foolishly insisting that Die Hard is not an appropriate choice for a Christmas movie and that they should watch some annoyingly heterosexual Christmas romcom. Nyssa stays out of the discussion entirely, but eventually snatches the remote out of Sara’s hand as she’s gesturing dramatically to try to convince Kendra, and turns on Home Alone, promptly ending the discussion. Sara shrugs and crawls under the covers, holding them up so Nyssa and Kendra can get under on either side of her.
They sit shoulder to shoulder on Sara’s bed for five minutes and then Kendra huffs and slides down a bit, trying to get comfortable.
“Can we just fucking cuddle instead of sitting here like three wooden dolls,” she grumbles, and Nyssa snorts and opens her arms. It takes some adjusting, but eventually they’re all settled in. Nyssa’s arm is around Sara’s shoulders and Kendra is lying on her side with her arm across Sara’s stomach, one of Sara’s legstrapped under Kendra’s. Her other leg is tangled with Nyssa’s, and despite the fact that she can move exactly none of her limbs without jostling all of them, she feels more relaxed than ever.
Kendra falls asleep first, her head resting on Sara’s chest. She carefully brushes a strand of hair out of Kendra’s face.
“I can see why you love her so much,” Nyssa whispers in Sara’s ear. There’s a brief spark of anxiety in Sara when she says it; a familiar worry over whether or not this is normal, whether or not she should have put Nyssa in this position.
“I like you too, you know,” she goes to explain, but Nyssa shushes her.
“I know, beloved.” Sara notices she only says the nickname in English when it’s just the two of them; she probably didn’t know Kendra would understand when she said it in Arabic earlier. “You have so much love in your heart, I’m not worried about it running out.” She kisses Sara’s temple, and Sara smiles.
It doesn’t take much longer for both of them to fall asleep as well. When Sara wakes up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, Kendra automatically rolls over into the empty space she leaves, grabbing onto Nyssa instead. Sara takes a sneaky picture of it for future blackmailing purposes, but stares at it for a little too long because they look kind of adorable. Then, she crawls back in on Nyssa’s other side and flings her arm over both of them before falling back asleep. Right before she drifts off, she realizes this might be the best Christmas she’s ever had.